Kunjipathil/ Kakkarotti/ Erachi Pidi ~ Rice Dumplings in Meat Stew

I feel it’s been long since I have done a totally Malabar style recipe post on the blog. So let me break the delay now… 🙂 Kakkarotti, also called as Kunji Pathil (literally translates as small disks) or Erachi Pidi (literally translates as meat and dumpling) is nothing but dumplings made with rice flours, dunked into a spicy meat stew. It is a little bit of work, like many traditional Malabar recipes are, but the end result is so delicious that you will see your family literally licking the plates that it is served in! The cooking is involved into two stages – one, making the pathil or dumplings and the second making the thick meat stew and finally you mix all of them up, simmer and then temper them to make a complete meal. The ingredient list may look long and the process cumbersome but if you plan out your cooking, this is a total winner at the end of it. Usually, I made my pidi the day before and keep it in the fridge, so that for the next day’s dinner, I am steaming the pidi from one side and cooking up the masala from the other and everything gets done in an hour’s time. I haven’t been able to find an easier way to do this! 😀

HD loves traditional meals and is always ready for it, but my kids are really unpredictable. (I think I am repeating this umpeenth time on the blog! 😉 ) While preparing the pidi for the first time, I made a limited quantity, since I was not sure whether the kids would eat, and if they refused to eat, I didn’t want to be the person eating up all the leftover food over the coming days. But to my surprise, the kids ate up everything and asked for second serving too, which unfortunately I didn’t have any extras to give them. After that, I make sure I make some extra so that the kids eat what they love. While doing this post, it reminds me that I haven’t made it in the past six months, since I have become vegan – now moved to vegetarian! – since I can’t get myself cooking this sumptuous meal and not being able to eat it. Call me selfish, I don’t mind! 😛 This is one dish umma never made, so when they were here with us at the beginning of the year, she made me make this and really loved it! So now I can add one more dish to what she loves of mine, the first one being my biriyani. 🙂 Off to the recipe…

Combine all ingredients in "for marination" section and set aside for at least one hour.

For preparing the dumplings, first grind the coconut, fennel and shallots to a coarse paste. Put into a large bowl.

Add the rice flour into ground paste and mix well. Add salt. Add the warm water slowly into the flour and mix till you have a dough. There is no need to knead. It just needs to be a mixed up dough.

In a flat tray, sprinkle sufficient rice flour. Make small dumplings off the dough, and put into the tray. To avoid the dumplings to stick together, keep sprinkling rice flour. Ensure that all dumplings are of the similar size.

Heat a steamer with water. Line the steaming plate with an oiled banana leaf or aluminium foil. Spread the prepared dumplings over it - do not crowd it - and steam them for 10-14 minutes till the dumplings are non-sticky to touch. Continue till all the dumplings are cooked.

Meanwhile, put the marinated beef into a pressure cooker and cook for three whistles on meduim flame or till done. Switch off and allow the pressure to go.

In a large saucepan, heat oil. Add the onions, ginger garlic paste and tomatoes and cook till the masala is done. You can leave on low flame and stir it occassionally.

Add in the masala powders and saute for a couple of minutes.

At this stage add the cooked beef along with its stock and cook on high flame, stirring constantly, till the stock dries up and the masala coats all over the beef.

Reduce the flame to the lowest. Slowly add the cooked dumplings and mix it with a light hand, ensuring that it doesn't break, yet is well mixed in thoroughly.

Cook on closed lid for around 10 minutes. Switch off.

Prepare the tempering, by heating oil. Crackle the mustard seeds. Add the shallots, red chillies and curry leaves and fry till the onion becomes golden brown or even charred, but ensure not to burn it.

Pour the tempering into the prepared pidi and keep on closed lid for a couple of minutes.

All worth it – the list of ingredients, time taken and making the dumplings a day ahead. I have never heard of this dish, but nicey. I tried to become a vegetarian for 3 months, I lost so much of weight. Now, it is vegetarian dishes and maybe one meaty dish for our daily meals, Also, once a week, on Saturdays, it is totally vegetarian.Nava K recently posted…Malaysian Coriander Spaghetti With Poached Egg

😀 It took 800+ recipes for you to get to this one??? How could you do this to our cuisine??? LOL. I prepared this just once, I think you remember me posting on social media. We prepare differently, we use soaked rice and its a bit coarse mixture. And we also don’t temper it. Guess each region has its own way! This one seems much easier than our version as there is one less work of grinding the rice! InshaAllah, I will prepare one more time for my blog! 🙂

Ah yes, you did! The way you said is the most authentic, soaking and grinding, but takes so much of time! This is like a short cut way to make it, hehe… And pidi is not a part of food from where I come from, for us pidi is sweet and not savory. It is amazing how Malabar itself has varying food from Kasargode to Malappuram… 🙂 Thanks a lot daa… and yes, you must make it for your blog, in your style… 🙂